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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 10 of 10

The Civil War

Slavery, secession and war

What your child practices

Practices the causes of the Civil War, the Union and the Confederacy, key battles and leaders, emancipation, and the war's impact on different groups of people, including Minnesota's soldiers.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 7.4.18.1 · the Civil War and its impact on different groups

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Slavery was the main cause. Compromises like the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) let settlers vote on slavery and raised tension.
  2. Union vs. Confederacy: Minnesota was first to offer volunteers, and the 1st Minnesota charged at Gettysburg.
  3. Soldiers’ letters show how ordinary people lived the war.

Example: What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) let settlers do? It was about slavery in new territories. Settlers there could vote on whether to allow it. Answer: Vote on whether to allow slavery

The Civil War in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 10 of 10 in 7th grade Social Studies, after Civil Rights.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    The 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry made a famous charge at the Battle of…

    • Saratoga
    • Lexington
    • Gettysburg
    • Yorktown

  2. Question 2

    Sherman's March to the Sea (1864) aimed to…

    • Destroy the South's resources and will to fight
    • Build a canal
    • Capture New York
    • Free Britain

  3. Question 3

    How did enslaved people help bring about their own freedom during the war?

    • They fought for the Confederacy in large numbers
    • They had no role
    • Many escaped to Union lines and joined the army
    • They stayed silent

  4. Question 4

    When the Civil War began in 1861, Minnesota was the first state to…

    • join the Confederacy
    • stay neutral
    • free all enslaved people
    • offer volunteer soldiers to the Union

  5. Question 5

    "Bleeding Kansas" refers to…

    • A flood
    • A Civil War hospital
    • Violence between proslavery and antislavery settlers
    • A gold rush

  6. Question 6

    Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), by Harriet Beecher Stowe, was…

    • A novel that turned many Northerners against slavery
    • A railroad guide
    • A Union battle plan
    • A Southern law

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